


Into the Belly of the Beast

by GODESTof3WORLDS



Series: Quintessence-sensitive [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Keith (Voltron), BAMF Keith (Voltron), Experiment, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Allura (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), POV Shiro (Voltron), Quintessence (Voltron), Quintessence-Sensitive Keith (Voltron), Serious Injuries, The Astral Plane, We Die Like Men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25831018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GODESTof3WORLDS/pseuds/GODESTof3WORLDS
Summary: Haggar still wants a specific paladin-now-blade-operative in her clutches, and Keith is on the exact ship she is on for a blades mission. What will happen when his true power is only fractionally revealed...
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Allura & Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Allura & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Blades, Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Voltron Paladins
Series: Quintessence-sensitive [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1787248
Comments: 45
Kudos: 106





	1. Captured Red Blade

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it took me a while to update this story, but I have been having writer's block for all of my works, but hopefully this is good...

“Remember this is only a recon mission,” Kolivan reminded me before I sprinted down the halls.

After a few turns I was in front of the door to the control room. I quickly placed my hand on the scanner, and heard the  _ swoosh  _ of the door when it opened to five sentries. I quickly unsheathed my blade, letting it extend to a full sword. I quickly sliced the robots in half before any of them could fire a shot that could give away my position. I slipped the chip that was on my suit hidden near my boot, and walked over to the computer to place it inside the console.

“Okay Kolivan, all set here,” I say to the leader of the blades.

“Good job Keith, give V’ek here a tick so he could download the files from over here,” he replied.

The screen then showed a purple bar that seemed to have indicated that the computer was having all of its content downloaded. Then, the ship shook from underneath me, making me stumble a couple steps to the right. 

“Kolivan, what’s going on?” I asked through the coms as I stared back at the screen to see it being close to finished.

“Haggar just joined the fight against Voltron, and her druids are her too, we mu-” he got cut off and I just heard static.

“kolivan!” I shout through the coms, but I just receive more static than an actual response from the leader., “Quiznack.” I mumble to myself as I look up to the computer to see that the information has been downloaded from the console.

I quickly snatch up the chip and run back toward the way I’ve came. As I take a left turn through one of the halls, I hear a crackling closer to my left side, so I quickly move to the right, then run up the wall to jump and I do a backflip so I land behind the druid who tried to attack me.

“Ahhhh,” the druid simply says with a nod of its head, “I see that the paladin changed costume, your friends must be happy to see you,” the menacing druid croaked.

I just shake my head before I throw my galra blade at the druid’s head, but before it does, it disappeared into a swirl of black particles of something. I close my eyes, and I trust my gut’s feeling and quickly spin around to punch the vile creature. I make contact with my fist to its face, but it then it blasts with a power surge to my side before I could run.

“AHHHHH!” the scream is just ripped from my throat as I feel the burning in my side and I am flung across the hallway into a wall, denting it inwards as I slump to the ground. I see my blade only a couple inches away as I make sure my injured left side doesn’t have much pressure on it, but I could still feel like flames attacked me and my whole side is on fire.

“The witch will have fun with you little one,” the druid creature sneered.

Black dots starts to dance in my vision as the druid just creeps closer. My blade was to my left, and I was so close to reaching it,  _ almost there. _ I tried to army crawl to it, but any movement that involves my side is just killing me. I try to reach out to grab it, but I can only graze the handle, but I am so focused grabbing the blade I don’t see the druid being back its leg and-

“AHHHHH!” another scream of pain makes my throat feel raw.

The druid took the blade, as I attempt to curl in on myself to hide from the pain, seeing a decent flow of blood from the kick seep down my side, and it placed it in its cloak, hiding it from my line of vision. Then the druid bends over to grab my ankle tightly before it starts to drag me across the floor. I have to bite my lip to stay quiet as we walk –be dragged- down the halls. My mask has been deactivated, and my hood has just been collecting anything from the floor. My back felt soar, my head felt a little fuzzy as my ankle felt like I have been pulled from it –oh wait, I am- and it’s becoming hard to think straight.

I hear a voice over the coms with a robotic voice that said,  _ “We’ll about o hyperdrive in 3... 2...,”  _ Oh no, I quickly think before they say number three, and feel the whole ship lurch forward really fast, and when we do stop, my injured side hit the floor hard and I black out with one thought in my mind.

_ I hope the team made it out okay.  _ And then blackness consumes me into nothingness.

~_~

“Um, guys, I see Haggar and she seems furious, what do we do Shiro?” I hear Hunk shakily ask me. 

“We don’t want to stay too long, but I think Voltron should try to hit her with one good hit, then quickly leave,” I command as I know that Keith, my younger brother, was down thereon that ship on a recon mission.

I hear Pidge and Lance shout as they aim their lions at the witch, but when they fired, there was a poof of black quintessence stuff, and I realized she vanished.

“Where she go?”

“Did we get there?”

“Shiro, what do we do?”

“Head back to the castle, I see the Blades’ pod leaving the ship now,” I command as we turn around and head back to the castle.

We have only started to devise a plan to gain a major portion of the universe from  Zarkon’s empire, but we need more information, so the blades went to go retrieve it, but this cruiser was the one that will give us much needed information. We follow the blades’ pod to the Castle of Lions. We quickly disband and get into our respected hangers. Once my lion lands, I get out of the chair, and head to where the blades landed. I haven't seen Keith in what feels like weeks. Once I walk into the hanger, I do a head count, but I only count three blades, but wasn’t there supposed to be four...

I walk toward the three blades and they all deactivated their masks with solemn looks, one of them included  Kolivan , but I couldn’t find the raven-haired teammate.

“Hey,  Kolivan , where’s Keith?” I asked the leader of the Blades.

“ Shiro , Keith didn’t-”

“Paladins! It’s Keith! Come to the bridge now,” I hear the princess’ advisor shout through the coms.

I sprint toward the door, hearing the blades follow, then I run toward the bridge. Once I get there the first thing, I see on the screen was  Hagger with a twisted smile on her face that could send shivers down anybody’s spine, but that wasn’t the scariest sight on the screen. The scariest sight was behind her, where the unconscious raven-haired boy who payer than usual with two druids behind him and a small puddle of blood underneath him. That’s when I heard the paladins come into the bridge.

“Well hello paladins, blades, it’s nice to you see you all here,” the evil witch croaked with a crooked smile.


	2. It's Only the Beginning...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haggar hails Voltron to let them get a sneak peek of what their teammate will be in for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry that this is short, but I will post another chapter of my 'WHAT IF...' work today, but I did just start online school, so my works will be more spaced out, but hopefully not too much.   
> Hope you like it!

_“Well hello paladins, blades, it’s nice to you see you all here,” the evil witch croaked with a crooked smile._

“Now, I’m pretty sure your friend would like to see you,” she smugly spoke as she walked over to Keith.

I could just feel my arm heating up slowly with every step she took toward my little brother, then she touched his face like she cared with a sickening look. Her smile then grew into something menacing before she pulled back her hand that was in a fist and swung toward his injured side-

**_ ~_~ _ **

“ Ahhhhh !” I screamed as I felt my injured side  explodes into  _ pain. _

I crumble to the ground as I try to control my breathing while fighting back a sob that threatens burst out, and tightly squeeze my eyes shut. 

“Good morning little one,” I hear an eerie voice whisper near my face. Before I open my eyes, I feel three horrible presence near me, two behind me, and one sickening, menacing one to my left. I open my eyes, and see a screen of the paladins, and the blades. I turn my head to my left to see Haggar giving me a toothy grin that does send chills down my spine.

“Well, I see that you finally decided to join us,” she  quietly snickered as all I could do was just groan in pain.

She nodded her head, and before I knew it, two sets of arms yanked up from the ground onto a chair-like thing while retraining my arms behind my back, and locking my feet to the chair. I looked up to see the Voltron team, and some Blades looking at me with all different stages of fear. 

“Well, I see that you have a change of costume, from a team that worked in the spotlight to now working with rebels of the  galra empire who work in the shadows,” she stated simply before she continued, “In that case, it  _ is  _ a crime to try and sneak onto a  galra ship, try to kill the emperor, try to free planets, and many other crimes that are just too hard to keep track of, so you would have to serve punishment for both parties,” she sneered.

She leaned forward a little, and I quickly glance at Shiro before I stare into the witch’s eyes and try to death glare her. She then out of nowhere placed her hand on my injured side, and I inhale sharply from the pain silently as she just stared at me with her yellow eyes under her hood with a menacing grin before it  disappeared and-

“AHHHHH!” a scream was ripped from my throat as hot searing pain was focused on my injured side. I saw black spots spotting the corner of my eyes when she finally stopped. I sagged into my chair as I tried to regain my breath, as I felt my  consciousness start to slip. I tried to stay awake, I really did, but the pain was too much, and I didn’t want to feel anything anymore, so I lost the battle of staying awake.

~_~

The scream that came from Keith came out broken, and horrible. The witch just placed her hand on his side, then there was a dark purple glow from her hand before we heard the crackling of some type of electricity. Once the witch stopped, Keith just then sagged forward on the chair, but the restrains on his wrist and ankles kept him up. 

He fell unconscious, but his breathing was off and labored. He looked a couple shades paler than usual as he had sweat that made his bangs stick to his forehead. The wound didn’t look good, most likely worse than the injury I had gotten when I fought the wish when we had to save the Allura. I looked away from Keith to see the witch with a please smile that meant she must have been satisfied with the results of her actions.

“This is only the beginning, a taste of what will come to this traitor,” she snickered, “don’t worry though, he will not die of blood lose, especially since I need him for my experiments,” and at that I felt myself go pale at the thought of Keith being  experimented on.

I heard everyone gasp at the realization as well. I just looked back at Keith to see him looking a mess. He was shaking either from the shock of the spell, or just in pain, maybe a bit of both. His skin looked pale, and he seemed like he was still out of breath. It was a horrible sight that made him look vulnerable, something he usually doesn’t look like even when he’s asleep.

“What do you want Haggar?” I asked as I clench my fist of my metal arm.

“What do I want?” she hummed as she walked closer to the screen as her arms stayed at her sides, “Revenge for the empire, a test subject that seems to have an interesting heritage, being part  Galra as well as  Altean , and of course Human,” she says with a shrug as a sly smile twisted on her lips. “Good bye for now Champion,” she hissed before the feed went out, leaving us in tense silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo...  
> How was it?  
> PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS, AND HOPEFULLY KUDOSSSS!!!!!!  
> (>人<)


	3. The Champion...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith fights the champion...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took longer than expected to write, but hopefully it's okay. Enjoy

“Now what?” Lance asked, and he sounded ... scared. 

“Keith has been trained to withhold any information while being tortured,” Kolivan attempts to reassure, but it doesn’t. 

“First, we honestly don’t care if he could withhold information, but secondly, how do train someone not to give away information?” Lance asks the leader of the Blades. He didn’t answer, and his silence was deafening. 

“I cannot tell you the process of our training, but you can know he passed with flying colors,” he states simply. 

I hear some sniffling come from where the green paladin’s chair was at on the bridge, and I turned over to see the green paladin hastily wiping her eyes. I walk over to her and put my hand on her shoulder and gently squeeze her shoulder hopefully reassure, then let go. 

“I’ve tried to track the feed, but I couldn’t get a signal, and he doesn’t have a lion that is primarily his, so we can’t sense him...” she trails off as her lips start to quiver and I could see tears start to form in her eyes. 

I put my hand on her shoulder again, but this time she grabs my waist, and starts to sob, trying to speak. 

“Shiro- he’s like a brother... to- me, I can’t... lose him... too...” she tightens her grip and continue on her ranting while I rub slow circles on her back, “Haggar will... pay if anything... happens to... him,” she says after another squeeze, and this time I hear the paladins shuffle closer. 

**~_~**

I wake up to me being dragged down halls by two druids, passing cell after cell that all seemed empty at first glance. When we did stop, we stopped at a cell that seemed to be at the very end of the hall. The druid on my right went to go opened the door, then came back to me to throw me into the cell on my good side. Before I could get up to my feet, they closed the cell door, and they left. 

“Quiznack,” I mummer as I looked at the cell, I was being held in. 

It was almost completely bare except for the small pile of what looked like a hay bed, and a toilet looking thing that seemed attached to the ground. Other than that, the cell was empty, there was nothing I could use to get out of here. I didn’t have anything restraining me like earlier, I was just in a black T-shirts and pants. I walked over to a wall, and just sat there, counting the ticks that passed by. 

What felt like hours later, a few druids came to the cell door, probably to escort me somewhere. I stood up from my spot on the floor, and put up my hands as one of them started to speak. 

“We are supposed to take you Emperor Zarkon,” the druid sneered as the door opened. 

I just raised my hands higher as I saw that they were aiming their hands at me, and I didn’t have a helmet on, or any type of armor, so one hit, and I could possibly get killed. No pressure. Then they disapper, and reappear behind me. I quickly turn around, but they grab my arms, and one of them hits my head, making me see black for a few seconds. 

They were escorting me down halls that all looked the same with the same gray halls with the purple light. We stop near a big door, then it opens, and I see Zarkon sitting on the throne. And with that, I was pushed into the room. Once I was a couple feet from the stairs, the druids dug their nails into my shoulder, making me hiss through my teeth. 

“Well, I see you bought me a paladin, but he switched costumes into something else,” Zarkon said as he stared at me with those menacing yellow eyes, “But you are also a halfling, part galra, part altean, and part of that race from that back water planet,” he hissed with a wave of his hand. 

He then stands from his spot on the throne, then walks down the steps until he is on the same level as I am, only a few inches away. 

“As I'm your emperor, I want you to bow before me,” he snarls. 

“No,” I growl as I straighten my back, trying to seem taller, and glare. 

“Bow now, or you’ll suffer the consequences,” he threatens with a formidable step foreword. 

“I won’t bow down to you,” I snapped. 

His eyes turned a dark purple, almost looking black before he punched me in the stomach, hard. I dropped down to my knees as I tried to catch my breath. 

“Send him to the arena, and make sure the paladins watch,” he sneered to my escorts before he kneels down before me and grabs my shoulder hard, using his nails to dig into my left shoulder, “Maybe you have the same fighting spirit as the black paladin,” he sneered. 

I just spit into his face, making him let go of my shoulder, but he then back handed me in the face, making me fall to the metal floor a little dazed. 

“Take him to the arena without a weapon in a couple of dobashes,” he growled before he went back to the throne, and then with a flick of his wrist, I was brought up to my feet, and taken out of the throne room, and taken to what looked like a domed arena. 

As I neared the door, I could hear the roar of a crowd through the door. Someone quickly shoved my head through a short, rough cloth over my head, and I just put my arms in the obvious arm holes before I was shoved into the arena. I looked down at myself to see I wore the same prisoner cloth as Shiro did when we rescued him from the Garrison. 

I heard the crowd clearer once I was in the arena, and as I moved a little closer to the center, and I could hear the shouts of ‘Champion’ louder. A large door on the opposite end of the arena opened, and once it opened, I gulped in fear as I saw my opponent. 

**~_~**

After only eating half of my goo, I decided to try and take my advice I gave to the others and go to bed early. I fell asleep about a varga later, around twelve in the morning, and went into a new nightmare that wasn’t because of my time at the arena. 

It took a year to find him, and rescue him from the galra empire, but we did find him. I walked into the cell to see him there in the corner of the cell looking at me from his place on the floor as he was sitting upright. He changed, with a scar through his right eyebrow, his hair cut short, and all the obvious muscle he had to gain, but that wasn't the worst part of it. It was the prosthetic right arm and leg he had that almost brought me to tears. 

We then ran out of the cell, and down the halls when he asked a question, I wasn’t entirely sure why he asked now. 

“What took you so long?” he barely whispered before I didn’t hear his steps echo behind me, but a thud. 

I looked back and saw that he was on the ground on his back looking up. I ran back to him to see there was blood on his head, and chest. He wasn’t breathing, and there was a tear on the corner of his eye still falling down his cheek as he just stared at the ceiling with no meaning behind his purple eyes. I closed my eyes and saw an image of Haggar with yellow eyes as she croaked out ‘Champion’ and then I woke up panting. 

_We have to save him before he dies._ The same thought kept circling around my head as his lifeless eyes just stared back at me. I shook my head and looked at the clock Pidge was able to make and the time to resemble Earth time. 2:23 was the time. I shook my head as I rubbed my face with both my hands as I tried to get the images of Keith’s dead body out of my head. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep, so I took off the covers and walked out of my room and let my feet take me wherever, which was the bridge. 

It didn’t sound empty once I got there, being able to hear some type of _clicking_ noises from inside. I went through the door to find every paladin in their seats doing something on their smaller screens while on the big screen there was millions of galaxies listed. 

“Did I miss something?” I asked which startled everyone. 

“We couldn’t sleep, so we thought we do something constructive. We were kind of just waiting on you to give up on sleep,” Pidge said as she fixed her glasses. 

“Got any leads yet?” I asked as I walked up front to my seat to try and find Keith. 

“No, Nothing yet-” 

“W-wait, it’s a transmission from Zarkon,” Allura announced slowly, her face paling as she looked over to me, just like the rest of the Zoltron crew. 

“Open it,” I finally say, if anything on there is about Keith, we need to know what’s going on and not be in the dark, I think to myself as I tiny voice in my head whispered, _and so I know he isn’t dead._

Allura nodded, and then opened the transmission with Zarkon. He had a cruel smile that was twisted on his face. Wherever he was, there was an audience chanting something. 

“I thought you might want an update on your little friend,” he sneered, “I hope you are all comfy, and enjoy the show,” he laughed as the screen changed to a camera, to see an Arena’s floor. 

Then it hit me where he was, and my stomach dropped. He was at the arena, going to fight the champion, that’s what the audience is chanting. Keith was a little off from being the center of the arena, but where I could see him, saw that he had no weapon, and wearing the same slave clothing every slave wore. I gulped as I tightened my prosthetic, something I got from the arena. For maybe the first time since coming out here, he looked weak and small. The big door across the arena started to open- 

“No,” I hear Allura said under her breath. 

“What is it Allura?” I hear Lance ask as he gripped his chair. 

“It’s a Savage Brute,” she exclaimed, “They’re not as dumb as you think they are, but they are vicious on the battlefield,” she says, and could see that everyone pretty much pales at the thought of Keith having to fight him. 

The Giant looking thing height was three times my size, and three times Hunk’s size with his rocky exterior he has. The monster also seems to have a big, thick wooden bat thing that was roughly my size. This fight was rigged. 

“Everyone who’s watching, let the battle begin,” Zarkon shouted from where he sat. 

Then the beast roared, shaking the arena and the camera a little. The chanting became louder and Keith looked scared, terrified even. 

“Quiznack,” I heard Keith mummer. 

The beast was faster than I thought it was going to be, considering its body structure and everything. It sprinted to the center of the arena, and swung its bat at Keith. He tried to move away from the fast-approaching wooden weapon, but couldn’t, and got thrown into one of the walls, denting it inwards. The crowd was silent as nobody moved nor spoke. 

“Come on Keith,” I whispered to myself. A tick passed and I thought that Keith died under Zarkon. 

I looked down at my hands, trying to ignore an image of Haggar, feeling a headache coming on when I heard a loud yell from where Keith was thrown at, then a big piece of metal flew at the beast, hitting him in the arm that held the bat. Keith stumbled foreword, his hand on his ribs on his injured side. 

“Yeah, go Keith,” I heard Lance yell from his seat. 

I felt a little relieved that he was alive, but he still has to defeat the alien creature before we could really celebrate. The audience started to chant again for the champion. Keith quickly got another big metal piece, about twice his size, and threw it at his opponent’s head, but the giant dodged it, and charged the former paladin. 

He just stood there until the last possible second, making me clench my fists in anticipation. He jumped out of the way, letting the alien run into the wall, shaking the walls. It stumbled out of the den, looking disorientated. Keith must’ve saw it too because he jumped onto his back with a metal shard of metal he must have gotten from the wall, and stabbed him in the back of his neck. The giant howled as he threw Keith across the floor, 

The Savage Brute stumbled back into the wall, collapsed, and just lied there limp. The crowd was silent and Keith was- 

“Oh Keith,” I heard Allura say under her breath. 

“Please get back up, come on brother,” I plead. 

**~_~**

I stabbed the rocky beast, as hard as I could, knowing his skin must be really hard, with my makeshift knife I had in my hand despite my whole body screaming for me to _STOP!_ But I couldn’t stop now, not when I could kill the beast and stop the fight. My opponent then bucked really hard, and I lost my grip and went flying, and then skidded across the floor. _Pain!_

My whole body hurt. I’m actually kind of surprise that I have some type of consciousness. My ribs hurt, it hurts to breath, my back hurt, my right arm hurt; my head feels like it’s about to explode. Dots are dancing in my blurry vision; I can barely think clearly through all the pain. My right leg feels numb, and I just want to sleep. 

_THUD!_

I tried getting up, but only moved to my stomach. I took a deep breath, and did the next step, getting my arms and legs beneath me, so I could push myself up. I pushed with the rest of the strength I had to get to my feet, but it was too quiet. I looked around the arena and saw that nobody was moving. I stumbled a little backwards and finally turned around and my eyes landed on the giant that now lied limp on the ground. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, how was it?  
> Pretty Please Leave Comments & Hopefully Kudos!  
> ༼˵⊙︿⊙˵༽


	4. This One Is Special

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haggar takes a look at the one that is special.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I am sorry I haven't updated, but I didn't really know how to write this chapter, but hopefully I did good. I will start the next update very soon. I hope this is still good. I thank everybody who left comments, I really appreciated it.  
> :)

I looked around the domed arena, and saw Zarkon, now standing, looking down at me like I was some type of lab rat or something. I just glared at him, daring him to do something while I tried to stop the bleeding on my side. He simply flicked his wrist, and four druids came through the same door the giant came out of. 

“Quiznack,” I groaned as I took a step back, bringing my hand that was not occupied to my side up. 

The first one disappeared, then reappeared behind me. I ducked down and rolled out of the way of their hand. They then all four powered their dark magic, and took aim. One of them tried to advance, but I took a few steps backwards, before they all fired. I jumped out of the attack, hearing the crowd cheer, but the beams of lighting just followed. I landed on hard on my chest when the druids recharged their attack. I got back up to, and then they fired, but this time I couldn’t move in time... 

**~_~**

“AHHHHHH!” the scream that was ripped out of his throat was in human. It was horrible especially when they stopped, he just fell limp like a puppet got their strings cut. 

The druids just shot my little brother at his chest at full force, and then just tilted their heads as he fell from the attack. The crowd just continued to scream, something about _half-blood._ I just stared at the figure on the arena’s floor, shaking so hard he looked like a leaf on a windy day as he just panted, breathing hard. The druids then went up to him, grabbed his arms and started to drag him out leaving behind- 

“Oh my god, is that a trail of blood?” I hear Hunk gag behind me as the other paladins just gasped. 

“That’s too much blood,” I hear one of them state, but I couldn’t match the voice to the names of the occupants in the room. 

The video changed from the arena, to the menace of the universe, Zarkon. He had a cruel smile that seemed to have been twisted on his smug face as he spoke, “He’s definitely something,” the emperor just nodded his head. 

“What are you going to do to him?” I ask through gritted teeth. 

He just shrugged, “I let Haggar take a look since it seems that this one is special,” he sneered before the feed was cut off and there was a strange silence that no one wanted to break. 

There was some typing on going behind me from Pidge’s station that made me look behind me to find that she was doing something on her screen that made her in deep thought. 

“Pidge, what-” 

“Not now Shiro, I'm almost in,” she states as she licks her lips, “Bingo, yes!” she exclaims as she transfers her findings to the big screen with a big smile on her face. 

It looked like a map of a galaxy, Solymus, and a purple dot, since Pidge insisted that we are not animals, moving. 

“Pidge,” Allura starts out slowly, “is this what I think it is?” she asks as she stands a little straighter. 

“If you are thinking it’s the galra ship Keith is on then yes,” Pidge replied as she adjusted her glasses. 

“Pidge! You’re a genius!” Hunk exclaims as he rushes to squeeze her in a tight hug. 

“Good job number five,” a cheery voice declares behind us, startling us, “been here since Zarkon hailed,” he answers before any of us could question him. 

And with that, we started our planning, hoping we could save Keith in time. 

**~_~**

I wake up on a table that seemed to be upright, and I was chained to it. I slowly opened my eyes to see four druids setting something up, making me gulp in fear. 

“Ah, you finally wake,” a croaked voice whispers to my left. 

I turn my head to search for the source of the voice, but it seemed to be a huge mistake because I then got dizzy, the room spinning as I started to feel nauseated, and I groaned my discomfort. After a couple of seconds everything finally stopped moving. I then felt a cold, rough hand on my arm making me flinch. 

“I sense something powerful within your quintessence,” she smirked, “I’ll like to complete a couple of elements on your quintessence,” she smiled as she walked away from me. 

I tracked her movements as she moved over what looked like a switch to something. She whispered something to a druid before she reached for the switch and pulled down the lever as I felt bolts of electricity shock me. 

I gritted my teeth in pain as I felt my whole body burn from all injuries to the new ones that I knew were forming. I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried not to give joy to the witch from my pain, until I heard some knobs being turned and felt the bolts increase the burning pain of my body. I then screamed through gritted teeth. 

Then I felt the burn from the electricity rise, and I couldn’t hold in my scream as I felt everything burn. Like every molecule in my body was burning, disintegrating into nothing. Everything hurt, until I felt nothing at all and I was breathing heavily as I was leaning away from the table. My head was bowed as I just tried to gain my breath and try not to move too much, but I heard steps coming toward me, then the same hand that touched my arm earlier was back. 

It was colder than earlier, and it made me flinch, which made my body burn a little more, resulting in me groaning in more pain as my breathing picked up again. The hand moved a little in an up and down motion as she hummed in acknowledgement. 

“Well, it seems that the electricity shock seemed to have had made your quintessence faster in a way that seems incredible,” she murmured, “Do you feel different than the pain,” she moved in front of me to ask me, but I just sent her glare. 

I did feel _not_ normal from the shock. My body felt like it does whenever I have an adrenaline rush. I felt like I had energy, but everything hurt, I could feel every pain be electrified. I tried to calm my shaking, but the witch just grabbed my check, and squeezed to point where I felt drops of blood, but I didn’t feel the pain, just start to see black spots in my line of vision. 

“Fine, don’t tell me, let's start the next test,” she sneered through gritted teeth before she let go of my face and turned away. 

They all walked out the room, leaving me strapped there. I was wearing a ripped black t-shirt, and a ripped pair of pants. Darkness start to cloud my vision, and my body started to feel number, and I gladly closed my eyes as I feel into unconsciousness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo...  
> How was it? Please tell me down the comments and possibly leave Kudos.  
> ʢ◉ᴥ◉ʡ


	5. Experiments...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haggar tests Keith and tries to see the reaction because of his special quintessence...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to update yesterday, but I didn't finish in time, so hopefully it's good. This chapter is basically Keith going through the tests, but don't worry, it's not as bad as it seems, but if you think you won't be able to read it, the next chapter Keith will lightly think about the tests...  
> Please enjoy!

A cold hand touched my arm, and I jolted back to awareness slowly. I raised my head which felt heavy on my shoulders to see through my bangs that the witch just smiling menacingly down on me. A groaned escaped me as I started to regain feeling in my body. 

“We’ll about to begin,” she whispered before she walked over to the other druids that were in the room to prepare something.

Then she quickly turned around and placed a hot poker thing on my arm, and I felt pain burn my skin, making me drop my head onto my chest, but it seemed like it wasn’t hurting as badly as it was supposed to. She moved around my arm until it seems that all skin was touch by the hot metal. It felt like my arm fell asleep and I was feeling the pins and needles, but worse. When I heard her hum, I moved my head to glare at her, and she just smirked.

She grabbed my face, and brought hers closer as she just stared while I continued to glare at her. She then put the poker on my ribs and I had to grit my teeth hard and curl my fist on my left hand since it hurt to move my other hand, to not break my glare to the witch. She just tilted her head to the side as she moved the poker across my ribs, and when she touched an injury, I felt how the pain was amplified to that area of skin, and winced in pain.

I looked away, but she shook my head until I looked up at her. She just smirked before she put more pressure on the wound, and I clenched my eyes shut not to reveal too much of the pain I was in.

After another minute of her touching all my wounds on my mid-section, she walked away as she put down the metal rod. She talked with the druids about something before she returned to me with her hands at her side.

“It seems that fire does change your quintessence,” she said as she started to pace the floor with one hand on her chin as she started to talk, “Did you know that eyes are the window to, well, you I guess you can say, they can tell someone whatever they want without that person needing to speak,” she said as she looked over to me, and momentarily stopped her pacing.

I just titled my head in response. I felt so soar.

“It takes a skill person to hide what they are feeling in their eyes, but it takes someone with more skill to be able to actually read what in their eyes. You seem to be able to hide your feelings, but when I started the tests, your eyes changed,” she continued onto her pacing, “And you didn’t just magically start to show me your secrets, but your eye color change,” this made me a bit worried.

Haggar was a witch, but she was also someone who wants facts and sometimes the only way to get those facts were to experiment on them and get the results. If this mean that she wanted to do more experiment on him,  especially his eyes...

It left a sour taste in my mouth.

“When we did first test, your eyes turned black, and your pupils turned into slits. Now your pupil change seems to be your  galra nature showing more, but the eye color change is nothing like  galra unless they turned complete yellow,” she murmured something to herself before she shook her head and continued talking louder, “At first I thought it was the way light reflected off your eyes, but it doesn’t seem that way, and then the iris of the eye change to a dark red, closer to the powerful spectrum of quintessence,” she then stopped and looked up at me with wide eyes.

For a moment she didn’t move, then she took three long strides until she was by my side and laid her cold hand on the arm she just burned. Her hand was cold, and  I could feel the heat radiate from my skin. It made me jolt in surprise, that jostled my wounds which made me release a quiet wince of pain.

“Well that is interesting, it seems that your quintessence is stronger in the areas of the burns,” she simply said as she finally looked up at me, “Do you feel different in any way?” she asked as she moved to  in front of me.

Aside from the burning pain I was feeling that I definitely wasn’t feeling before the test, but I did feel like I have energy, and the pain doesn’t feel as bad as they should, but I wouldn’t tell her anything and she just squinted her eyes for a second.

She huffed out a “fine, then start the next test,” and with that she left the room with the other druids trailing behind her, and I dropped my head to my chest in exhaustion, the pain was starting to really set in.

** (~_~) **

“The only problem where Keith is located is that it is central command and last  time, we almost didn’t survive the mission. We had to rely on the blades, and I am going have to say we might have to do it again,” Pidge spoke as she looked at where the command ship is at now.

“Ah don’t worry number five, I have already contacted the blades, and  Kolivan has already agreed to help with a small group of blades,” Coran spoke from behind the group with his cheery  attitude.

“Great, now all we need is a plan,” Shiro spoke and we started to make a plan to save Keith from the hands of the  galra empire.

**(~_~)**

“ Graaaah !” the pain I felt from someone punching me in the ribs spread fire throughout all my bones. It hurt, pain was just the one thing my brain could comprehend.

After a few minutes of taking deep breathes, I finally looked up and saw that the druids seemed to be preparing something with their dark magic, and it made me gulp in fear. There were four druids, two were coming closer, and two of them were aiming at me with their hands aimed at with electricity crackling to life in their palms. The two coming closer unchained me, and grabbed me by my arms, but just pulled on all of my wounds that seemed to spark to life, making tears bead at the corner of my eyes as I winced. It hurt, everything hurt.

I couldn’t move my legs underneath myself in time before they started to drag me out of the room and down the hallway, passing closed doors until we stopped at one that they had to scan their hands to open the door before we entered the cold room. When I was able to lift my head, I saw what looked like a tub with ice filled to the top.

“Let’s begin with the first  part of the test. Throw him in,” croaked a voice from somewhere to my left, and before I could turn my head to face the witch behind the voice, the druids were dragging me over to the tub of ice. I could feel the temperature of the room go lower, and I start to try and pull away, but I was in too much pain.

My body felt like a huge bruise as the druid dragged me farther into the room and closer to the tub of ice. I tried to get away, but they just squeezed harder, and the arm that was burnt lit up in pain that I saw black spots in my vision. They then lifted me by my arms and just placed in me in the tub. I tried to lift my body above the cold, but it was inevitable and they just held me down.

It felt like everything slowed down as it became harder to breathe. It felt like all my muscles were frozen over, and every move I made to try to breathe, made it worse. This type of ice felt like a cocoon of a freezing blanket that is wrapped all around me. I still had on my  prison clothes, but it just felt like the thin material did nothing against the cold.

I tried again to struggle out of the tub, but it just made all of my muscles feel like they were being pulled apart. The witch was in front of me after a couple minutes of me trying not to cry out in pain, and she placed her hand on the same area on the same arm. It somehow felt colder that the ice and made me flinch as I groaned in pain. 

“It seems that the cold is making you weaker in your quintessence, interesting” she  murmured before she let go of my arm, and then talked to the druids, “let’s start the final part of this test of today,” 

The druids nodded their heads before they grabbed my arms and lifted me out of the tub, but it felt like fire was burning under my skin, but I couldn’t move any part of my body, so a groan in pain was the only sound of pain I released as they started to head out of the room. I just felt like I was wearing a weighted suit that clung to me, making it harder to breathe, and burning my wounds.

They dragged me out the room and down the hall until they stopped at another door. They opened it, and this time there was a tank of water with a chain that was out of the tank. I tried to stand, but all it just resulted in the druids to just tighten their hold on my arms. They brought me closer to the tank before I could see Hagger at the corner of my eye.

“Chain him up, and put him,” she instructed. 

I didn’t want to be confined in the tank, being held down  my the chains, but they didn’t care.

“No, no  no no ,” I tried to pull away, being able to get to my feet, but before I could put much more effort into pulling away, I heard some type of crackling before I felt a heated pain on the head, and all I saw was black.

** (~_~) **

“Okay, here’s the plan,” I started to say in front of Voltron and the Blades, “Voltron will attack central command as the blades will go in and find Keith. We’ll then separate and one of the lions, whoever is closest, will pick up the blades and Keith, and hurry back to the castle to put him in a pod,” I stated the quick plan.

The blades nodded their heads to the plan while team Voltron responded with a simple ‘yeah’.

Hopefully this would work...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was it?  
> Please leave comments and kudos!  
> (ㆆ _ ㆆ)


	6. Rescue...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voltron and the Blades work together to rescue Keith, but Haggar isn't done with him yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post this yesterday, but then I remembered I had to complete some assignments and that took forever, but I really want to post it so here it goes...  
> I hope you enjoy!

“Ahh!” I screamed in shock as I was slowly put in a tank of ice-cold water that almost felt like it was burning.

I had rope wrapped around my wrists above my head as I was hanging on a hook thing that was lowering me down into the tank. 

The water was now to my abdomen and I could feel all my wounds burn, like it would if it was being disinfected, but I don’t think that was what the water was doing. A couple of ticks later, the water was up to my neck, making it freeze my airways. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, but I know that soon, I was going to be submerged under water, so against my aching chest, and raw throat, I took a huge gulp of air before I was completely submerged, then my hands were unhooked.

For some reason, I felt tired. Like my body seemed heavier, and my head didn’t feel like it should be placed on my shoulders, I just felt drained for some reason. I didn’t feel like I was having too much of a challenge holding my breath, but my wounds were burning more the longer I was submerged. I had the instinct to breathe, but I wasn’t out of breath left, so I opened my eyes, it didn’t sting I noted, and glared at the witch.

Haggar looked at the tank and gave an evil smirk that seemed to have made her eyes glow a brighter shade of eerie yellow, before she then turned around to what looked like at a metal table that had several objects on top of it. 

“Did you know that  Galrans can hold their breaths longer than most species? Most would have thought they would be the opposite, but no.” She placed her clawed hand on the table as she skimmed through the objects that were on top of it, “I think that they have better lung capacity because they are a fighting race, needing air so they can take more blows without being winded too much, and have better stamina in a fight. I guess from my research on the champion, you have the  Galran’s lung capacity. By this time, he was already gasping for air,”

She looked up and just smirked before she looked back down, and picked up a blade. A luxite blade. My blade. 

“This is an interesting blade. Did you know that the planet that harvested this metal, one of the strongest in the universe by the way, had one of the best harvests of quintessence? It is kind of what started the whole expedition after  Zarkon came back from the field to find that  Alfor destroyed Daibizaal, but we haven't found another planet with enough of it, maybe that back water planet might ha-”

The ship started to shake, interrupting the witch as she slammed down the blade on the metal table with a frown. She looked at her druids before she gave me one last glare, then followed them out of the room as the ship shook again. I tested the rope around my wrists, but it didn’t loosen. I looked toward the glass, and quickly swam on the other side of the small tank, and slammed against the opposite side of the tank as a long crack formed. I tried again two more times before finally the glass broke and I fell out.

The gush of wind I felt left me shaking as I dropped like a bag of potatoes onto the metal floor. The fall aggravated all of my injuries and it was hard to breathe. The cold before I was submerged under the water returned, plus the wounds burned, and falling flat on my chest left me trying to inhale as much air as I could. It hurt. Everything hurt. It felt like the only thing I could feel was pain, but I know that I would need to hurry up and use this distraction to try and escape the cruiser. 

I got my arms and knees underneath me once I could catch my breathe. Once I did accomplish that, I used all my strength to push up off the ground, going against the gravity on the cruiser, to get me onto my knees. I was breathing harder as my injuries just seems to burn. My vision was a little blurry, but that could be because of blood loss, which isn’t good. I grunted as I went to my next of goal of standing up.

Once I was able to shakily make it to my feet, I had to grip onto the metal table that had my knife lying on top of it for support. My body felt extremely heavy, seeming to not want to hold itself up. Once I felt stable enough, I reached for my blade, then looked over to the door where I had to exit. I just grit my teeth, tighten my hold on my blade, and started to walk over to the same door that the witch left.

Once I was close enough to touch the pad, I took a deep breath before I placed my hand on the pad and as the doors open, I quickly raise my blade, letting it extend to all its glory, and cut the heads of the two sentries that were standing guard outside my door before they had the chance to turn and fight back. I leaned onto the wall for support as I tried to suck in as much air as I could.

I pushed from the wall, and gripped my blade with hands as I started to walk down the ship in search of the escape pods. I was about to turn a corner when I heard footsteps. They didn’t sound like sentries since they sounded quieter and off beat than the usual beat the sentries seem to walk on, but they could be druids. 

“ Quiznack ,” I murmur  quietly to myself.

I close my eyes as I try to manipulate my quintessence, but the only thing I can do is just flicker in my usual dark red color before I turn back to nothing. My quintessence just feels stretched too thin. I must be using some of it to help stand, which makes sense since I am starting to see black spots in my vision. The footsteps are getting closer, and I could hear, I think, three sets of steps, but I can’t be too sure.

I just need to be able to get a running start and jump into the quintessence field, and hope I can get into an escape pod, but that will mean they can use their power against me, and even if I can jump before they hit me, I would have to make sure I don’t pass out from using too much quintessence and my wounds. This is going to be a little hard to do. I shake my head before I hear the footsteps about to turn the corner-

I jump out, about to distract long enough for me to gather my core quintessence when I see that the 3 beings  weren’t wearing cloaks, but instead wearing black suits with purple markings. The one that is in front of the group turns off their mask, and I see  Kolivan’s face behind it.

“ Kolivan ,” I whisper before I see more black spots in my vision, and the ground seems to get closer, and closer...

Until I feel arms wrap around my middle and lets me lean almost all my weight on top of him. I hear static before some words that I cannot make out, but the voice sounds familiar, but it sounds so far, like it's at another end of a long tunnel. But I hear  Kolivan’s response as he speaks into his com.

“Shiro,” oh, so that was who was talking, “we found him, but he’s in pretty bad shape here,” and I almost want to laugh at that, because isn’t that the understatement of the year, or is it deca-phoeb.

I feel all the injuries I sustained before I was captured, while Haggar was showing what she will do to me, during the arena when I was fighting the champion, what the druids did to me after the fight, and what Haggar did to me while she was experimenting on me. She electrocuted me, burned me, put me in a tub of ice, and then just dropped me into a tank of water that burned. She did all of that for what? To see that my eyes could change colors with my quintessence. Everything hurts. 

I didn’t hear the response from the other end of the com's unit, but I did hear  Kolivan’s grunt of confirmation before he grabbed my arm and put it around his neck before he started to half-carry, half-drag me down the halls that all looked the same, as they kept blurring in and out. 

We soon were at the extraction point where the black lion was waiting for us with the jaw opened.  Kolivan , with the two other blades, led us into the black lion’s mouth before he placed me down the metal floor allowing me to lean back on the wall s of lion.

“ Dulna , get me the scanner,” he commanded.

I just stared at the  galra who was shuffling in a bag until then there was a scanner being handed to the leader of the blades. He looked back at me before he started to scan me. His frown went lower and lower as the scanner beeped every other second.

“Stars Keith, how are you still awake?” I just shrug my shoulders, which turned out to be a bad idea as it aggravated my wounds and hissed through my teeth. 

My left side was killing me, it hurt to breath, my head was hurting with a constant ringing noise that wouldn’t go away, and I just felt soar everywhere. It just hurts... 

** (0_0) **

“ Kolivan , what’s Keith’s condition?” I shouted out from over my shoulder as we started to head away from the battle and towards the castle.

“His whole left side seems burned, broke three ribs, cracked at least the others, minor concussion, bruises all over his body, a sprang wrist, druids magic marks on his body from what seems where the druids attacked him, and that’s what I can get from the scan so far,” he said, and it didn’t sound like it was all of his injuries.

My little brother was only there for about two days, but that was two days too much. There was still a fight that was still going on, and it was getting harder trying to dodge the ships that were fighting back. One ship got a lucky hit on black’s back which seemed to have had impacted the-

“Ahhhhhh!” I hear the shout of pain from Keith and it broke my heart.

Once we got back to the castle, before the Black Lions paws were fully on the ground, I got up from my seat and raced to the cockpit, hearing Black’s purr in the back of my mind as I saw my little brother breathing heavily.

His slave shirt and pants were ripped badly with dry blood staining the ends and water drenching them and his hair. He was shivering. his arms were wrapped around his middle, and he looked paler than he usually is. I kneeled in front of him and saw Keith’s eyes were following my movements, but he seemed like he was barely staying awake.

“I’ll need to take him to Coran so he could put Keith in a pod,” I inform  Kolivan . I looked over to him and he nodded his head before I go to carry my little  brother by holding him bridal style. 

I try to move him gently, but he still groaned in pain, and as we started to move, I can tell that I was bothering his injuries as he continued to wince. His eyes kept fluttering close before they opened, but not long until he started to close them again. I just kept telling him little reassurances to him as I continued toward to the infirmary where I know that Coran was waiting for them.

“Come on Keith, just stay awake a little bit longer,” I turned a corner as Keith let out a groan, “We’re almost there, please keep your eyes open, please,” I begged as I continued to race to the med-bay.

He did keep his eyes open, but only barely. Once I ran into the med-bay I saw Coran running around trying to gather supplies for the injured boy, but once he saw Keith, he stopped for a second to let out a “Oh Number Four,” before he was running around and mumbling to himself.

“Where should I place him?” I asked, wanting to get this right the first time so we won’t waste  any time .

But before he could answer, there was static coming from my com, “Shiro it’s -” then it was just static again. I looked up to Coran before the Castle shook, and the power all turned off.

“Its... Haggar,” Keith croaked and once I looked down at his face, I could see fear and pain in his face and his eyes.

The ship shook again, and I just held Keith closer to me, though I had to be very careful since he had serious injured ribs. The next shake was followed with shouts and my stomach dropped even further. Keith shivered, but he tensed in my arms. My arms started to light up, emitting a light glow to the room that let me see that I was near a wall. I couldn’t find Coran, but I heard a thud in front of the med-bay before the door was blown off.

There stood an angry witch that seemed to be glowing a lighter lavender color. I put Keith behind me, letting my brother lean on the wall as I made sure to get into a protective stance in front of him with my arms growing hotter with heat.

“Give me the boy, and I’ll leave,” the witch’s wrath seemed to be fuming in waves of hate.

“Never,” I sneered, and I could hear a groan coming behind me.

** (~_~) **

From where I was standing, I saw Shiro lunge at the witch with his glowing arm. All the witch did was just raise her hand before she fired her dark magic at Shiro’s chest...

And he dropped like a ragdoll. Lifeless. 

“Shiro!” I shouted.

The witch just grinned a twisted smile as she readied another attack, except this time she aimed at his head as he groaned and started to stir. And that was the last straw before I looked down at my older brother. Everything started to go fuzzy as I could see red at the edges of my vision...

** (^_^) **

I started to get up despite that my chest seem to protest, making it harder to breathe. I heard some crackling in front of me, making me tense in anticipation, but I didn’t feel anything once the crackling noise had quieted down. I looked up, but instead of a bolt of lightning, I saw a stunned Haggar that seemed to be staring at something, so I followed her gaze to see Keith.

He was glowing a dark garnet red with midnight black sparks that seemed to be flying from him. His pupils were slits and his eyes were pure neon yellow, but there seemed to be a fire behind them though, and from his snarl that he was holding to the witch, his teeth have sharpened. 

“Keith,” I whispered.

Then a battle roar as Keith brought both his hands in front of him, extending his arms, and shooting a beam of a darker red than the dark garnet color that was surrounding him with black sparks following the beam until it hit the witch.

“ Ahhhh !” Haggar screamed as she put her hands and was pushed back a few inches before she disappeared, but there wasn’t any smoke like she usually does when she disappears, but I wasn’t able to think too much about it before there was silence. 

Keith turned back to normal, but he then dropped like a puppet who got their strings cut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read the summary for the whole work, I said Keith's power is only patricianly revealed, and I am doing that in this chapter, so... yeah.  
> How was it?  
> I was wondering if I should add a little hint of romance in this work or not. If you read the first piece of work of my Quintessence-Sensitive series, then you know the ships, if not it is Kallura and Plance.   
> PLEEEEEASE tell me what you think with COMMENTS and KUDOS!  
> :)


	7. What Happened?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith did something to the witch, and now he is getting worse by the minute. What is happening?

_Keith turned back to normal, but he then dropped like a puppet who got their strings cut._

I was barely able to scramble in time to at least catch his head. His breathing was harsh and fast and he was shaking violently. I moved a strand of his hair out of his eyes that were squeezed shut, and I noticed his fists were clenched shut as well. 

“Shiro!” I heard Allura shout as she entered the med-bay with the team who was following behind her with a few bruises. Hunk seemed to be the last person to come in and he seemed to be carrying an unconscious Coran in his arms. 

“What happened to Keith? His quintessence levels are really high. What did Haggar do to him?” Allura asked as she kneeled by us, and touched his forehead. 

I took a deep breath before I recited what happened only a couple of minutes ago. Allura just stared at him in surprise. 

“Allura, what’s happening to him?” I asked the princess. 

“His quintessence is powerful right now, and it seemed that he over works himself. Pidge, set up a scanner,” 

I picked him up as he continued to quiver in my arms and placed him on the examination table, but he winced terribly, a tear rolling down his cheek. Pidge came over with a scanner, scanned him, and as she read over the scan, her face paled fast. 

“What is it Katie?” I asked as Keith winced again. 

“All of his ribs are broken, getting close to at least one of them getting fractured, a dislocated left shoulder, a minor concussion, sprang wrist, and ankle, but for some reason it seems to be getting worse by the minute,” Pidge tears her glasses off and rubs her eyes hard before she looks over Keith again. 

I looked down at Keith and saw him clench his teeth and fist tighter as some blood dripped from his hand to the table. 

**(^_^)**

The blurriness in my vision finally cleared and I felt like I was falling for a few minutes before I landed hard on my side, luckily the less injured side. 

“Ow,” I groaned to myself as I shakily raised myself to my feet. 

My ribs hurt with every breathe, no matter how deep I inhale, it felt like a pile of rocks were crushing my chest. My left should was burning, and my wrist didn’t feel right, but it wasn’t the most concerning injury. I looked around my surroundings to find... 

Blackness. A midnight black color was all I could see. There didn’t seem to be a light source anywhere, but I could still see fine, but the color of my surroundings was just a midnight black color that seemed to be engulfing me. I tried to think on how I got here, but I just keep seeing Shiro’s body moving a little as Haggar was aiming a lightning bolt to his head, then everything was blur. 

I walk foreword, or was it my left, my right? Whatever direction I was walking, I walked into nothingness. I look around the landscape and saw a cloaked figure lying there. I take a deep breathe despite my aching ribs, and walk closer to the figure. Once I'm a good foot away, I recognize that the cloaked figure is Hagar, and she starts to move. 

I limp away from here, trying to get as far as possible away from the witch. Once she gets up, and gets a good look of the place where we’re at, she gasps, then turns around to face me with a look that says this whole situation is my fault. 

I just stared at her as I inched to my fighting stance, finding that I don’t have my blade with me, and made sure my ribs were being protected with arm. She then raised her arm and release a black attack at me. It almost felt like everything was in slow motion as I dodged the attack, but landing painfully on my side with the burns. I gasped in pain, but that just made it worse as everything was silent. 

I got up from my position on the floor and glared at the witch as I put a protective arm around my ribs. 

“What did you do!?” she shouted her question as she readied her attack with her hand crackling with electricity near her sides, “Where are we!?” she then aimed at me, and I brought my arm up in time to- 

“Ahhh-!” I shouted as she hit me in the chest, making me gasp in pain, which resulted in me flying above the ground and landing hard on my back. 

Then there was no more crackling sounds, but instead, all I could hear were my choked off screams, and groans in pain. I couldn’t breathe. There wasn’t enough air, and I felt like I was dying. My ribs ached, and my heartbeat felt like it was beating too fast against my broken ribs and it felt like it wasn’t letting me suck in air. I heard her cloak move closer until her croaked voice rang through my choked off breaths. 

“How did you bring us here you vermin?” after a few seconds of silence between us, she readied another attack and struck. 

“Ahhh!” it wasn’t as strong as the last one, but it hit my sides hard enough for me to have been pushed further away from her. 

I finally was able to get enough air to manage to answer her question, “I d-don’t kn’w,” and I just clenched my teeth and fist hard as I heard cracklings come closer and closer... 

**(^_^)**

“Can we put him in a pod?” I asked Allura as she paced up and down the infirmary. 

“Sadly no. His quintessence levels are all out of whack, but we can put Coran in thanks to Hunk getting power to the pods,” Allura said with a hopeful attitude as she smiled toward Hunk who was in the corner of the room with the other paladins. 

The blades left once the fight was over, Kolivan telling us to keep him updated on Keith. He was going to make sure that the castle wouldn’t have to fight while they were looking over Keith. 

“Yeah, cup half full,” I look down at Keith as he clenched his eyes and fists tighter shut. He was looking worse by the minute. His skin was a few shades paler than his usual skin tone, he was panting harsh, and I could see his canines sharpen. His ribs were getting worse, and it resulted in him breathing harsher. 

“This is weird, I mean this didn’t happen last time he had to blast something,” I heard hunk say, which caught my attention. 

“What? Last time?” I asked, knowing that if something like this happened, I definitely would have remembered. 

“Oh right, this was when Keith was leader,” Lance said with a nod of his head, but he didn’t seem to be his normal self though. 

“Okay so apparently the witch sent out this huge snake like monster creature to capture Keith since he is part Galra, Altean, and Human, and most hybrids wouldn’t have lived, so while Hunk and Keith were on a mission, the creature came out and tried to capture Keith and kill the rest of us-” Pidge started to explain before Hunk cut her off. 

“But after about five minutes of talking to the creature to stall for the others to come save us, he started to attack, and you should have seen him. Keith was like really fast with his attacks, but precise, until he got hit with the tail,” he murmured under his breath before he went back talking about what happened. “And then the snake creature thing was about to roast me, but then Keith was like ‘Leave. Him. Alone.’ and he was pulling an Allura-” I made a face at this. 

“He means when Allura healed the Balmera, and she had the light blue aura with quintessence surrounding her,” Pidge explained as she adjusted her glasses. 

“Yeah, except he was glowing red and black with no sparkles, just light, but anyway. The creature attacked him with fireballs that came from his mouth, but then Keith caught the fire, then start to shoot them back, but he only seemed winded after he did that though. He didn’t...” he trailed off. 

“Go into a coma that seems to be doing harm to him,” Pidge finished as she quickly wiped her eyes. 

Lance walked over to Pidge, and brought her in for a hug as we heard a sniffle from her. After a couple of minutes of silence, Hunk led both Lance and Pidge out of the infirmary to the kitchen, if I heard the excuse correctly. 

“I just don’t understand how he’s unconsciousness, and yet he’s getting worse. How?” I questioned after Keith let out a painful whimper. 

Then Allura stopped mid-stride as she half turned and looked at Keith. 

“Wait, when Keith blasted Haggar, you said she disappeared?” she asked as she came closer to Keith. 

I nodded my head, “Yeah, but it was weird though, it didn’t have the usual smoke effect like it usual does, and she definitely got hit,” I concluded as I looked down at Keith, and then back up to Allura. 

“Maybe he’s conscious, but he’s in an astral plane he must have created, and accidently brought Haggar with him, and now their...” she trailed off. 

I just shook my head in confusion, “Princess, I have no idea what you are talking about,” 

“Haggar said that she wanted to take some tests on Keith, right?” I nodded my head, “Okay, so she might have been testing his quintessence, and depending on which species, their levels could either drop significantly, or raise beyond what should be normal,” she then continued pacing. 

“Which one happened to Keith?” I asked as I looked down to my younger brother after another pained whimper. 

“I think his levels rose beyond what should be normal. I think when he attacked the witch, he sent her into an astral plane, and there he is as well since he doesn’t have that type of training to be able to avoid something like that to happen, especially the state he was in when we got him back,” she walked back over to Keith and reached out to his hand to squeeze it. 

“Okay, so how do we get him out of there?” I asked. 

“Well, I will have to go in and free his mind from wherever he is, because if he dies there, he will die here. The body cannot live without the mind, so I will enter, and when I pass out, catch me,” she says, and before I could react, she put her fingers on Keith’s temples and pink sparkle things float around her before they disappear and she collapses. 

I caught her before she hit the ground, and I placed her on a bed that was near Keith’s and saw she looked peaceful unlike Keith. 

“I hope you know what you are doing princess,” and with that I watch over both them, and waited. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how was it?  
> Please tell me what you thought in comments and maybe give me some kudos.  
> ( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)✌


	8. Astral Plane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura goes into the Astral Plane to help Keith...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all...  
> I meant to write and post this chapter so much sooner, but life is hard during holiday season and Covid-19 times.  
> Hopefully this is good and ENJOY!!  
> (*≧∀≦)ﾉ Happy New Year! ♪

Once I put my fingertips to Keith’s temples and closed my eyes, I felt myself falling. Falling in darkness that looked like it had no end to, until I landed on my arm, hard.

“Ow,” I whisper to myself as I stand and rub my arm.

Then I hear some type of crackling noise, a croaked voice echoing, and an awful scream that seems to get closer to me.

“Ahhhhh!” I then see the source of the shrilling sound that seems to echo in this place, somebody skidding across the darkness, holding their ribs and coughing up something.

“Fine, if you won’t tell me, I’ll just kill you,” I hear the croaked voice before I see the cloaked figure.

Haggar is standing there with a snarl on her face as she raises her hand up with a big ball of energy that is buzzing with energy, but before I could move to stop her attack, Keith suddenly springs up from his position on the floor and blast her with his own power that hit the witch square in the chest. She flew back, and he collapsed on the ground, this time not moving.

**(x_x)**

After I put Allura on the cot beside Keith, I feel a sharp spark of pain behind my eyelids. I just squeeze my eyes close as I rub my temples, hopefully making the headache go away before it gets worse, but before I could make the pain disappear, I hear a wet scream to my right, where Keith is at.

I quickly open up my eyes and walk the two steps distance between him and the princess to get to him. Keith seemed to have coughed up blood, and his ribs with his chest showed blossomed bruises, looking both purple and black. Tears were falling from his shut eyes and I feared what was happening.

Before I could call out for help from the others, the wet scream stopped, and his eyes opened and showing yellow eyes that glowed a fierce neon yellow. He glowed a blood red color with black sparks surrounding him for a tick before he turned back to normal, his eyes closed, but his breathing was faint.

**(x_x)**

I ran over to his body and saw a small puddle of blood of where he was coughing up earlier. I kneeled by his side and saw how limp he looked, his chest barely moving as his breathing seemed shallow with small rasping noises that followed.

“C’mon Keith, you cannot die, we need you,” I whisper as I splay my hand on his chest, feeling how faint his heartbeat, “I’m going to try something okay?” and I let some of my outer layer quintessence transfer over to the wounded man.

I could feel that he did not have any outer layer quintessence left over, probably using it all for the last blast he did. I felt a little dizzy afterwards for a tick, but other than that fine. I have to wait another tick before I see Keith’s eyes start to flutter open.

“Keith?” I whisper as I rubbed his shoulder.

“’lura?” he sounded horrible, his voice sounded rasped and scratchy like he been yelling for hours, which I sadly do think happened.

“Yeah Keith,” I reassure him with a nod of my head, “I’m here,”

He grunted in response as he tried to get up. I quickly help him sit up. I hear the painful winces, and once he was up, it did not leave me how terrible he looked. His pale skin almost paper white, sweat rolling down the side of his face, and the intense shaking.

“Where are we?” he croaked.

“We’re in an Astral Plane of your making. Do remember what happened before you were here?” I place my hand on his non-injured shoulder as I asked the question.

He cleared his throat before he answered, “I remember Shiro on the ground with Haggar standing above him w-with her power trained on him. T-then a blur of red and black before darkness enveloping me as I fell here,” he answered as he turned his head to me once he was done.

I nod my head as I squeeze his shoulder and started to get up. I then help him stand. Once he was up on his feet and I was sure he was not about to fall over, I could hear that his breathing sounded off and he looked exhausted.

“How do we… get out of here?” he was shaking a little and I was a little scared.

**(x_x)**

My whole body ached with every inhale of air that I took. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, yet I could feel the pain that was pounding behind my eyes. My right shoulder felt like it was on fire. Then my torse was whole another type of pain that was barely manageable. It felt almost numb, yet every inhale and exhale I took, I could every bruise that was blooming, cuts that were being reopened again, every burn felt like fire was licking the skin, and I felt my broken ribs with every breath. My chest felt like there was a boulder on top of it, making it harder to breathe. 

I looked over to my left to see Allura there studying me, watching me suffer with every harsh breath that seemed to push out air than allow me to suck it in.

She cleared her throat, “There’s a backway. That is how we will get out of here, let me just…” she trailed off as she raised both her hands up and waited a moment in silence.

Then, a _whoosh_ of air as a blood red door appeared in front of us. She staggered a little into me. I quickly grabbed onto her, ignoring the sharp pain that sparked in my chest, as I made sure she was stable. She sent me a smile in thanks before she straightened up and walked over to the door.

“Here we go,” she whispered as I followed her through the door.

We walked into a blinding, white room with a pay phone in the middle of the room. There were mirrors, from the ceiling to the floor, around the room, making me see my reflection stare back. I looked down at the white ground, from the quick look, I looked awful and I did not want to stare any more that I had to.

“Let me go first,” Allura broke through my thoughts, making me stare up at her, “Shiro will need my help getting you into a pod,” she smiled a small smile.

I nod my head as she walked closer to the pay phone. It looked exactly like any pay phone down on Earth, it was just white like the room.

“Just put it by your ear a few seconds after I do, and make sure to put it back here,” she pointed to where the phone was placed before she followed her own directions, picking the phone up and disintegrating into white pixels before disappearing.

**(x_x)**

I turn around to see Allura gasping as she finally awoke. She seemed a little drained and tired, but other than that, fine.

“Keith should be coming out soon, though his would be more painful unfortunately because of his poor cond-”

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

The wet scream came from behind us. Keith arched his back painfully above the table he was on, and I saw why he screamed. Now on his back seemed to be a burn that was not there covering his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how did I do?  
> PRETTY PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND MAYBE KUDOS!!!  
> (*≧∀≦)ﾉ Happy New Year! ♪


	9. Keith VS. Hagger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith fights to leave the Astral Plane and to survive from Hagger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is my last day of winter break and I will be starting semester 2 of my school year so I thought I write this. I hope I did good on this chapter because this one I was a little nervous on.  
> ENJOY!  
> (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)

“Now, before you leave this prison, let me finish what I started,” the voice breaks through my fog of pain, “killing you,” she spatted before I heard another lightning bolt about to be released.

I feel a quick adrenaline rush as I quickly get up from the floor, despite the pain in my back, and make an X with my arms in front of me as I make my outer layer quintessence form a shield to block the shot. I feel the lightning hit the shield, making me slide back a few feet before I pushed the attack out back to the witch. I let my arms fall to my sides, but I follow the attack with my eyes, so I see the witch sidestep the attack as she smirks.

“Well, this makes this more fun,” she croaks.

The witch’s hood has fallen off her head so I can see her ruined Altean marks, and how her eyes shine brighter. She puts her hands in front of her, her palms facing each other, as a purple ball of energy is formed. I copy her movements, making a dark marron energy ball. We just stand like that for a moment, staring each other off. She wears her smirk as her eyes glow, I wear my glare as I fear some of my Galran features start to show, my sclera turning a neon yellow like the witch before me as my iris slits as my vision narrows on the foe before me. It is silent…

Then she lets out a roar that rocks the Astral Plane, and I match her with my own battle cry before there is just blinding light on both ends of the white room. Light gleams off the mirrors, the temperature seems to have dropped as well as heated up. The energy in the room being used as well as being replenished. It’s a light show as the two beams of power clash.

I grunt under her power, her beam creeping closer to me. I hear her laugh as her beams grows stronger and get closer to me, showing more of the purple color than the red. With a battle cry I press back, ignoring the burning of my wounds as I feel ice cold sweat drip down my back, I push out more of my quintessence, taking some from my core and push back as I feel the power warp into something else. I see as my beam has turned into a neon blue fire that quickly burns her power, creeping closer and closer to the witch. I hear a grumble on her end as I feel her try to push back, but I start to walk closer to her, pushing back the power toward the witch.

I grunt under the power, feeling my arms tremble, but I know that if I fail stopping her long enough to get to the phone booth, I know that I will never get out of this Astral Plane alive. So, with all the force I can put in, I push forward. Every step I take, she takes one back. I get closer and closer and closer…

A violent scream echoes in the room…

The mirrors all break into shards, cutting the two occupants in the room…

A blast that makes both persons fly backwards…

It is silent. Nothing happens for a very long while. Then something shifts. A harsh cough…

I get to my knees and arms and push up of the ground, leaning on the part of the wall where no mirror shard could cut me too badly. I shakily inhale as I feel my adrenaline start to leave my system. I hear some shuffling on the other side of the room as I see white hair start to move. My eyes widen as I start to quickly limp to the pay phone, seeing as it is the only thing standing.

I hear a growl before a crackling noise that follows my moves…

“You will remember this fight, as the next time we meet, you won’t be so lucky,” and the pain that follows makes sure I will not forget.

It’s a burning pain that hit’s my left calf, but I finally reach the phone as I quickly pick it up to my ear as I hear the witch’s scream of rage fade.

**(O_O)**

Keith let out a half scream through his teeth that made me clench my own. He looked horrible. I put my hand on his chest, making sure I didn’t aggravate any of the major burns. I looked back at Allura as I caught her biting her nails again with wide eyes as she stared at Keith.

There was a second of silence. Then it was broken by Keith sitting up with a horrible scream that seemed to have brought tears to Allura’s eyes. His eyes shot open and I saw his amethyst pupils almost get consumed by the pupil. His arms were around his ribs before he seemed to just have collapsed, almost falling off the cot if I wasn’t there to steady him. He was shaking violently as his breathing seemed to have got more frantic, like he was trying to gulp air, but wasn’t able to actually get in any oxygen into his system.

“Allura,” I spoke to Allura, making her look up at me, “help me get Keith into a suit,” I command gently.

She hesitated a second, looking at Keith a final time before she nodded and rushed over to grab a suit as I started to strip him. It was difficult trying to get his slave clothes off of him without hurting him too badly, but it seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn’t avoid the wince or groan of pain that came out of my brother’s mouth. By the time Allura finally came back with the suit, he was only in his boxers, and the injuries that littered the pale skin of the former paladin almost made me throw up.

It seemed like the skin was a canvas of bruises, blood, gashes, cuts, and burns that speckled along the body, almost hiding any of the pale skin. It was sickening that at such a young age, Keith had to experience this amount of pain in a war that we weren’t involved until at most a year ago. It was sickening.

I look over to Allura to see her hands up to her mouth as she seemed to be shaking her head while she silently cried. A sharp gasp from Keith made me put my hand on Allura. She looked over to me as I just nod to Keith. She nodded and we put him into the white cryo-suit, though it turned red the second the fabric was placed on any of the wounds. Keith let out horrible sounds throughout the whole process, making me have to swallow my tears.

Once Keith was in a cryo-suit, we heard Coran’s pod beeping, warning everyone that the pod was about to open. Allura ran to the coms to warn everybody about Coran. I quickly lifted up Keith and walked him over to his prepped pod. I heard a groan from him and looked down to see his eyes barely open.

“Hey buddy,” I whisper to him.

“H’ro?” he slurred as he blinked a couple of times.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I tighten my hold on him for a second before I speak again, “You did good buddy, you escaped and now you can rest,” and after a second, he does just that.

I put him in the pod, as soon as he is stable, Coran comes out of his own. I see him fall forward in the princess’ arms as she place a blanket over his shoulder. I walk over to the pad that did a scan of Keith once I put him in the pod and looked over his injuries.

His ribs seemed to have broken twice and cracked many times, making me think of the pain he had to endure to just breathe. He seemed to have dislocated his right shoulder, his left wrist was broken, and a moderate concussion. He had gashes, bruises, and cuts. He also had different types of burns, some that seemed to have been made from magic, some that looked like he got because of electricity, and some from something hot.

It seems that it will take a movement to heal all his injuries and replenish his quintessence. Seven quintants of waiting. I heard the other paladins come in and heard them gasp, probably at both happiness that Coran was healed, and Keith was finally in a pod, but also some of the visible wounds that littered Keith’s face and blood that showed through the cryo-suit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...  
> How I do?  
> We have 1 more chapter y'all!   
> PLEASE. LEAVE. A. COMMENT. AND. MAYBE. A. KUDOS!!!!  
> (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ ✧ﾟ･: *ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo...  
> How was it?  
> Pretty please leave a COMMENT and maybe a KUDOS!!!  
> ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ


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